This invention relates to the field of automated pharmaceutical unit singulation, counting and dispensing. In particular, the present invention relates to an apparatus for pharmaceutical unit singulation, counting and dispensing, as well as a system of controlling individual and groups of apparatus.
Automated systems for pharmaceutical singulation, counting and dispensing are known in the art, and each attempt to solve a deceptively complicated task, namely the automated reduction of pharmaceutical units from bulk storage into an easily countable line of pharmaceutical units. Previous systems, however, are quite large and expensive, making them difficult to retrofit into an existing community pharmacy, chain pharmacy, or institutional pharmacy designed and built when the pharmacist hand counted each and every prescription.
Previous systems further remain challenged to accurately count pharmaceutical units and avoid damaging or destroying pharmaceutical units in the process.
Thus, there remains a need for the improvement of automated systems for pharmaceutical singulation, counting and dispensing.